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Verizon Wireless to give away ringtones on New Year's Eve
It seems that Verizon Wireless is in the holiday spirit this year and are going to give away one free ringtone to every customer on December 31st. Customers will be able to take advantage of this by texting the word "tone" to "2007." In return, they will receive a message with the instructions on how to download their free ringtone. With this being a promotion, we're thinking that your choice of content might be limited (What, no B.I.G.?). If anyone decides to take advantage of this, drop us a line and tell us about the ringtone choices.
Mario ringtone marks over two years on charts. Who knew?
While Nintendo's mascot hasn't really been burning up the console charts lately, there is one area where the Nintendo mascot has been unquestionably dominant . This week marks the 112th consecutive appearance of the original Super Mario Bros. theme on Billboard's Hot Ringtones chart. This continues an unbroken streak of chart appearances that has gone on since Billboard started tracking ringtone sales back in November 2004.The streak is made even more impressive when you consider that the chart only tracks ringtones that are actually sold by various major vendors. Add in all the nerds who've undoubtedly downloaded a free version to their bluetooth sets and the classic theme is probably even more ubiquitous.Personally, I'm cheap and lazy enough to actually use the built in ringtones on my phone, but I'm always curious to see what other people use. Have any Joystiq readers actually downloaded the Mario theme to their phones? What other video game ringtones have made an impression on you?
Monotone: Square-Enix colors the mobile kingdom
You won't find Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura's new portable RPG on a Sony or Nintendo handheld. Monotone was developed exclusively for the mobile phone market and is a subscription-based (¥210 per month; under $2) puzzle-RPG, in which the protagonist must restore color and sound to his world (and no, he's not a wolf-god).For a limited time, Square-Enix is accepting fan-submitted content, presumably to inspire new characters, monsters, and quests that could be added to the game at a later date. There's also an in-game points system, which encourages players to redeem their hard-earned points for ringtones and wallpapers. Monotone is currently available on Japan's DoCoMo network. In other words, you won't be playing it.
LocoRoco gets emo, joins MySpace
MySpace is the biggest site on the internet. Home to tons of emotionally unstable teenagers that have nothing better to do than refresh their Friends list constantly, MySpace is the perfect place for stalkers and advertisers to go to reach such a lucrative audience. Sony has created a page dedicated to Loco Roco to "spread the joy" and make it a less dark, depressing, emo place. So far, it looks like it's working: the blobs have over 6,000 friends so far! Will you add these blubbers to your friends list? I know I will. Check it out, if only for the free ringtone and other goodies offered on the site. If the site makes you happy enough, maybe you won't go into that dark corner in the bathroom writing poetry about how much life sucks.
"Stealth ringtone" can only be heard by teens
We admit, the vibrating alerts in some phones are extraordinarily loud, often too loud to be discreet. And if the phone is sitting on a hard surface? Forget it. Motorola's BUZR could be years away, if we ever see it at all, so what's a mischievous, cellphone-toting student to do when phones are banned from class? Rumors are flying that students in the UK have recorded the sound produced by a device called the Mosquito, designed to disperse roving gangs of teenagers by emitting a sound that can only be heard by youngsters. By using the recording as their ringtone, they hear it (along with their friends and any nearby canines) while the poor headmaster is left in the dark. It's debatable whether your average cellphone is capable of producing sounds in the range necessary to elicit this effect, so this may be nothing more than a rumor, but if you see packs of dogs belting out some tunes near the local high school, you know what's probably going on. [Via Ringtonia and BoingBoing]
Mariah Carey to write and record ringtones
We're not sure if this signals the end or further resurrection of her career but the Glitter girl herself, Ms. Mariah Carey has inked a deal to write and record original ringtones in a Pepsi/Motorola exclusive offering. No doubt, it’s nice to see artists and corporations alike embracing new technologies as a means of getting their ware out. Still, we just hope she can avoid the temptation of warbling about in her trademark whistle register pitch -- a ringtone sure to make Crazy Frog sound like a soft baby coo dipped in whispers.
Murlocs as the new Crazy Frog?
With a poster on the European forums enquiring after the Murloc sound as a phone ringtone, I have a horrible vision of the future. The all-too-familiar Murloc gurgle has something of the same catchiness as the Crazy Frog ringtone; it wouldn't take much for Blizzard, or some enterprising player, to remix the humble "RRrlllllRRR" sound into a new tune of epidemic viral proportions.With a captive audience of over five million who'd buy into the brand, will we see the Crazy Murloc any time soon? Novelty Christmas single, humorous Flash video; the world is just waiting for murlocs to invade.
